Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i Land Rover Monthly

Tackling the sills I WAS very interested in your article about the repairs to the sills of the Discovery 3 in the April 2020 edition. I own a similar vintage Range Rover Sport and have just spent a few hours removing the side steps, as they were quite corroded. I had to remove all the trim around the sills, which after 15 years were in almost perfect condition. When I removed the front piece that covers the bottom of the front wing, there was quite a bit of mud in there. It must have come from the tyres. that must have found its way in there from the front tyres as I haven’t been off-road except for the odd in track and dusty trails. Once I had cleared the cavity,…

IT’S almost 30 years since I moved to the Nene valley in Northamptonshire. When I moved here in March 1991, my village was a sleepy hamlet on a hill by the river – a predominantly farming community, where nothing much happened. The village pub served beer to thirsty farm workers (but no food) and the toilets were outside. There were a lot of Land Rovers, but most were working vehicles. How things change. Virtually nobody works on the land now, the pub serves mainly food (or did until Covid-19), the woodwork of the thatched cottages where the farm workers used to live are now painted in Farrow & Ball pastel shades and many are now weekend retreats. There are still plenty of Land Rovers, but most never see mud under…

I thought we were going to see the new Defender here in June but this has now moved back to August. It feels like this has been a very drawn out release, even before the impacts of COVID-19. Surely JLR could have sent a couple of new Defenders over to Australia as they did the US? New car sales in April 2020 were really low, in fact the lowest month-on-month in 26 years, so you would think JLR would be heavily promoting their new model. Quite the opposite. Recently a couple of friends visited JLR dealerships to enquire about the new Defender, and one of them had to wait half an hour before a member of staff even made an approach. He simply wanted to know when it would go…

THE best thing about owning a Land Rover is that the whole world is open to you. It’s this philosophy that Land Rover Adventures, a group of friends and green oval enthusiasts, strongly believe in. Between them they have covered over 30,000 miles in 17 different countries over the past 12 months. They are not a business; they just reach out to Land Rover and Range Rover clubs all over the UK to facilitate road trips, to bring people together and to experience travel in a different way. Adventures from previous years include Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Chernobyl, while future quests may encompass the Alps, Romania, Morocco and Kaliningrad. From quaint villages to sprawling cities, famous landmarks to the wilderness, Land Rover Adventures are always looking for new and exciting…

COMING out of lockdown, I thought it was time I cleaned my two Land Rovers. I hadn’t driven them in over ten weeks, yet there was a decent layer of dust on every surface. How did that happen? Anyway, while giving the dashboard of the Discovery a wipe, I noticed that the odometer read 169,463 miles. Mmm… That figure seemed familiar, so I went over to the Ninety and sure enough it had just passed the 169,000 mark too – 169,013 miles, to be exact. I will have to balance out driving duties between the two vehicles so that they both pass the 170,000 mark at the same time. For no other reason than it would be fun to do. Of course, 169,000 miles is low mileage for a 24-year-old…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WHEN we think about corrosion in Land Rovers, our minds often jump straight to the chassis, quickly followed by the bulkhead – the well-documented areas of rust. The thing is, these areas all have one thing in common – they’re all made of steel and, over time, exposed steel without any protective coating will rust. It’s often said that Land Rovers don’t rust, because they’re made of aluminium. This, as a lot of owners of Series, early Ninetys and One Tens (and early Defenders) will know, is an urban myth. It’s not uncommon to see slightly dubious areas of paintwork and, on closer inspection, you may see a slight white powdery substance forming. This galvanic corrosion is often found when two dissimilar metals touch over a period…

RANGE ROVER celebrates half a century of design and engineering excellence with a special edition Range Rover Fifty model. Limited to 1970 units globally to mark its birth year options include three heritage colours from Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations. Over its 50-year lifespan, the Range Rover has achieved many world firsts and completed numerous impressive feats. It was the first SUV to feature a permanent 4WD system when it was launched, and in 1989 was the world’s first 4x4 to be fitted with ABS anti-lock brakes. Later in 1992 it became the world’s first 4x4 to be fitted with electronic traction control (ETC) and automatic electronic air suspension to help it feel more refined both on and off-road. In 2012, the latest-generation Range Rover became the world’s first SUV…

AS we’ve seen over the past few issues, dedicated charity volunteers have been travelling thousands of miles in their Land Rovers to deliver vital supplies, and the Bedfordshire & Cambridgeshire 4X4 Response (BC4X4R) charity are no different. In fact, it is believed that they are the busiest group in the whole 4x4 Response UK network. As of May 24, BC4X4R had covered over 23,000 miles, delivering emergency stocks and PPE to hospitals, doctors, care homes and pharmacies. They also completed welfare checks on vulnerable people, delivered food parcels and collected urgent drugs from Nottingham for ventilators at Luton & Dunstable Hospital. During the COVID-19 outbreak, 253 members (some more than once) have been deployed together with 149 vehicles (again, some more than once) as they’ve responded to 120 requests for…

I reported in this column two months ago that JLR was burning over £1bn a month during the lockdown, and I wondered how long this could last before the company’s cash reserves run dry. Well, now we know. Sky News has revealed that JLR has been in discussion with the government about ‘temporary state funding’. Some commentators have suggested the company might need as much as £2bn. JLR has already borrowed £700m from a group of government-owned Chinese banks. The Bank of England has a loan scheme for large companies but JLR’s credit rating is now so awful that it isn’t eligible to apply. And JLR’s parent, Tata, will find it difficult to stump up any cash because historically JLR’s profits have been propping up the rest of the Tata…

Digital content creator Jess Jackson is @land_rover_girl on Instagram. When not helping in mum’s antique shop she busies herself with all things Land Rover related. If you would like to be featured here then email her on landrovergirluk@gmail.com or send her a DM via Instagram. 4 THOMAS HODGSON Instagram handle: @modellandroversoffroad Bio: Lake District photographer with a twist. The first model Land Rover photos on Instagram Followers: 7877 THIS month’s column is all about one owner of many, many mini Land Rovers because there is no such thing as too many. Scale model Land Rovers have taken Instagram by storm, and even the official Land Rover account has recently been full of them. Everyone seems to be having a go at creating mini Landy adventures and posting snaps of their…

LOCKDOWN has been tough on our Land Rovers. All dressed up and nowhere to go. Except if you’re Dominic Cummings of course, but let’s not go there, we don’t (always) talk politics and religion in LRM. I have done a few trips to the head office in Lincolnshire, plus the new Defender British Red Cross story in our July issue, as for the rest, it has all been done from home. That is about to change as I head off on day work trips to bring you the best Land Rover stories out there. This past weekend I used my 110 for two fairly local paddling excursions. The first was with a fellow South African, Andrew Stone, the editor of Classic Military Vehicle. Our River Nene adventure began at the…

TECHNICAL EDITOR ED EVANS CONTACT: lrmtechnical@gmail.com I recently saw a Series I that had been beautifully restored to original spec without being over-cooked. In my book, if a historic vehicle needs to be restored, it should be returned to how it was in the day, showroom condition perhaps, but no better. The exceptions are bespoke vehicles built by specialist companies deliberately improving on Land Rover’s own efforts. And if these trucks are restored in the future they should be rebuilt to the same bespoke standard to preserve what they have become, rather than turning them into another replica of factory output. Bespoke vehicles are special simply because they are different from the standard. The Series I that I saw should never have been restored to factory spec. It too, had…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WE’VE all been there: our dependable and reliable Land Rover gets us everywhere and back safely and reliably, but deep down we know the old wagon is a tad tired. The taut handling has gone, the steering’s lazy on twisty roads, sudden throttle movements reveal a few clonks from below, and when going over potholes we wonder if the old girl’s going to shake and rattle herself to death. These problems develop gradually over the years and miles, and we adapt to them, so we’re often not really aware, or at best we dismiss them as the character of the machine. But the sum total of these niggles impacts on safety and reliability, and certainly spoils the driving experience. The cumulative effects of even slightly defective bushes,…

TO date (June 6) 12,500 miles have been covered by volunteers from the Devon and Cornwall 4x4 Response group (DC4x4R) delivering over half a million items of PPE and carrying out almost 250 tasks for Devon NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and Voluteer Cornwall during the crisis. This has been the largest and longest deployment the group has ever undertaken and is still ongoing. The group, which has approaching 90 members across Devon and Cornwall, has been working with the Local Resilience Forums and Devon and Cornwall Police to provide logistical support to frontline NHS sites and carers of vulnerable adults and children across the two counties. None of this would have been possible without the dedication of the Groups Control Team of ten controllers who have used their local knowledge…

WHEN Britain’s inevitable lockdown was looming, a big decision for me was whether I’d rather be in Devon (with my beloved mother and Lightweight) or in London (with my beloved life, and my beloved). I also contemplated going to Devon just to retrieve the Lightweight, since us citydwellers were made to feel so toxic – as potential carriers of the feared Covid-19 – that visiting older relatives was deemed an act of cruelty rather than kindness. The idea of standing on the doorstep two metres away from my mother, fearing to hug her in case I was unknowingly infected, like Typhoid Mary, was horrible. As were other scenarios of just picking up the keys and heading for the M5. How would that even work? Should I receive the keys in…

RICHARD HALL bought his first Land Rover, a Series III, just after his 18th birthday and has since owned, maintained and restored these vehicles for over 30 years now. He runs a small Land Rover repair and restoration business in Norfolk and every month he lets off steam in LRM. JUST hours after I filed my copy for last month’s Norfolk Garage, the country went into lockdown. I was up until 2.00 am trying to find out what the new regulations would mean for my business. In the end I concluded that I was permitted to continue working. I could theoretically do some work from home, but rebuilding a gearbox on the kitchen table would land me in some trouble with the domestic management. However, it wasn't clear whether my…

SUNDAY, May 2, 1971. You could argue this was the date when anyone who harboured any lingering doubts about the advantages of coil springs on Land Rovers finally had to concede that the leafer’s days were probably numbered. It took Land Rover themselves another few years before the diehards among their own senior management accepted the fact and commissioned four coil-sprung assessment vehicles, built by cutting and shutting Range Rover chassis and fitting modified Series body panels. Why 2 May 1971? Because that was when the results were announced after the conclusion of the first Hillrally, which had been held that weekend in Wales. And despite the best efforts of several teams in their Series Is and IIs, the event had been won outright by a Range Rover. We told…

Range Rover, the first 50 Roger Crathorne, Geof Miller, Gary Pusey and James Taylor. THE story of the first Pre-production Range Rovers. The origins of the ‘100” Station Wagon’ project from people involved at the time, plus leading marque historians and experts. A unique book, in that details abound in not just how the car was conceived and developed, but the authors also researched what happened to the vehicles in the years since. They may have been made with a single purpose for the company in mind, but the cars all went on to be used and owned by everyday people. A super insight into the lifetimes of each vehicle, detailing work, accidents, restorations and human input over half a decade. 60 Years of Adventure Nick Dimbleby SINCE the late\-1990s,…

IT is funny what you find time to do, when time is almost all you have. Two month’s lockdown has passed as I write this, and sure enough, we’re now permitted to leave the house, and, crucially, drive. Many of us used lockdown to sort all those little things we always meant to, but never found the time to. As you’d expect my cars have been spotlessly cleaned. If there’s a fluid held in either vehicle, then I’ve drained and changed it for fresh. If it is possible to flush the system, then I’ve also done that so the clean fluid does its job fully. The Series I has a beautiful brass tap on the side of the engine to drain the coolant. I know it is beautiful because I…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WHEN this 19J Turbo Diesel engined Ninety came my way a few months ago I had no need for another hard-top or Station Wagon model. But I had been considering a pick-up truck for the winter, which I could convert to full soft-top for the summer months. I decided this Land Rover was a perfect candidate, particularly because the engine had been fully built and refurbished and was running like a dream, with lots of power and torque and (very importantly) clean and smoke-free! Having already removed the roof panel, sides and rear safari door in last month’s LRM, it’s now time to fit a secondhand hood frame set, a military-style roll bar and a new old stock canvas hood, all of which I had been fortunate…